Ontario one of 11 counties in record-breaking chemical waste collection

Ontario was one of 11 counties in the Finger Lakes and western New York that pumped a record-breaking 138,000 pounds of chemicals for disposal during the October collection sponsored by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

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By Julie Sherwood

Wayne Post

By Julie Sherwood

Posted Jan. 4, 2014 at 3:40 PM

By Julie Sherwood
Posted Jan. 4, 2014 at 3:40 PM

Ontario County coughed up 10,750 pounds of chemical waste during the fall 2013 CleanSweepNY program. Ontario was one of 11 counties in the Finger Lakes and western New York that pumped a record-breaking 138,000 pounds of chemicals for disposal during the October collection sponsored by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In the fall, 211 businesses, municipalities and schools in the counties disposed of the chemical waste that included 71,689 pounds of pesticides, 16,839 pounds of school chemicals generally from science labs, 22,209 pounds of paint and 94 pounds of elemental mercury, as well as 377 mercury devices and 222 aerosol containers.

This fall's CleanSweepNY collection event was the 15th since the program's inception in 2002. To date, DEC has collected and disposed of approximately 1.2 million pounds of hazardous chemicals, 800 pounds of elemental mercury and approximately 4,000 plastic pesticide containers that were not disposed of in landfills.